1997–98 Southern Africa Tour

The 1997–98 Southern Africa Tour, titled as the 1997–98 Vodacom Tour for sponsorship reasons, was the 27th season of the Southern Africa Tour, the main professional golf tour in South Africa since it was formed in 1971.

1997–98 Southern Africa Tour season

Duration	10 April 1997 (1997-04-10) – 8 March 1998 (1998-03-08)
Number of official events	24
Most wins	Desvonde Botes (3)
Order of Merit	Mark McNulty
Rookie of the Year	Richard Fulford
← 1996–97 1998–99 →

Vodacom title sponsorship

In June 1997, it was announced that the tour had signed a title sponsorship agreement with Vodacom, being renamed as the Vodacom Tour. The agreement was reported to be worth R 100,000,000 over five years.^[1]

Schedule

The following table lists official events during the 1997–98 season.^[2][3]

Date	Tournament	Location	Purse (R)	Winner[a]	OWGR points	Other tours[b]	Notes
12 Apr	Kalahari Classic	Northern Cape	70,000	Sean Pappas (3)	n/a
27 Jun	Vodacom Series (Eastern Cape)	Eastern Cape	150,000	Des Terblanche (4)	n/a		New tournament series
5 Jul	Bosveld Classic	Limpopo	150,000	Desvonde Botes (2)	n/a
12 Jul	Vodacom Series (Mpumalanga)	Mpumalanga	150,000	Robbie Stewart (1)	n/a
26 Jul	Trustbank Gauteng Classic	Gauteng	120,000	Bradford Vaughan (1)	n/a
9 Aug	Vodacom Series (Gauteng)	Gauteng	150,000	John Nelson (1)	n/a
30 Aug	FNB Botswana Open	Botswana	150,000	Nasho Kamungeremu (1)	n/a		New tournament
13 Sep	FNB Namibia Open	Namibia	150,000	Wallie Coetsee (1)	n/a		New tournament
21 Sep	Bearing Man Highveld Classic	Mpumalanga	75,000	Darren Fichardt (1)	n/a
11 Oct	Vodacom Series (Free State)	Free State	150,000	Dean van Staden (1)	n/a
18 Oct	Vodacom Series (Western Cape)	Western Cape	150,000	Desvonde Botes (3)	n/a
25 Oct	Vodacom Series (KwaZulu-Natal)	KwaZulu-Natal	150,000	Grant Muller (1)	n/a
1 Nov	Lombard Tyres Classic	Gauteng	120,000	Andrew McLardy (1)	n/a
16 Nov	Leopard Rock Classic	Zimbabwe	100,000	Adilson da Silva (1)	n/a
23 Nov	Zambia Open	Zambia	250,000	James Loughnane (1)	n/a
30 Nov	Zimbabwe Open	Zimbabwe	400,000	Nick Price (10)	20
14 Dec	Mycom Mafunyane Trophy	Limpopo	200,000	Kevin Stone (3)	n/a
17 Jan	Platinum Classic	North West	100,000	Desvonde Botes (4)	n/a
1 Feb	Nashua Wild Coast Sun Challenge	Western Cape	500,000	Adilson da Silva (2)	14
8 Feb	South African Open	KwaZulu-Natal	£450,000	Ernie Els (10)	30	EUR
15 Feb	Alfred Dunhill South African PGA Championship	Gauteng	£400,000	Tony Johnstone (17)	36	EUR
22 Feb	Dimension Data Pro-Am	North West	1,900,000	Nick Price (11)	18		Pro-Am
28 Feb	Stenham Royal Swazi Sun Open	Swaziland	500,000	Paul Friedlander (2)	12
8 Mar	Vodacom Players Championship	Gauteng	1,000,000	Mark McNulty (28)	14

Unofficial events

The following events were sanctioned by the Southern Africa Tour, but did not carry official money, nor were wins official.

Date	Tournament	Location	Purse (R)	Winner	OWGR points	Notes
7 Dec	Nedbank Million Dollar Challenge	North West	US$2,500,000	Nick Price	44	Limited-field event

Order of Merit

The Order of Merit was based on prize money won during the season, calculated in South African rand.^[4]

Position	Player	Prize money (R)
1	Mark McNulty	589,053
2	Tony Johnstone	553,327
3	Scott Dunlap	368,378
4	Marco Gortana	289,062
5	Nic Henning	277,552

Awards

Award	Winner	Ref.
Rookie of the Year (Bobby Locke Trophy)	Richard Fulford	[5]

Notes

1. The number in brackets after each winner's name is the number of Southern Africa Tour events they had won up to and including that tournament. This information is only shown for Southern Africa Tour members.
2. EUR − European Tour.